Stance On Car Exhaust Still Undecided

State Remains Undecided On Car-exhaust Standards

The state's top environmental official said Wednesday he would recommend to the governor by the end of next week whether Connecticut should adopt California's tough anti-pollution standards for cars.

Timothy R.E. Keeney, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, would not say what he would recommend to Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr.

FOR THE RECORD - Environmental Protection Commissioner Timothy R.E. eeney, when asked whether he agreed that automakers would make one car for the entire Northeast region if the other states in the region adopted California's tough auto-pollution standards, said yes. But he added that he thought it was inappropriate for the onnecticut to be pulled along. He said the state should decide the issue on its own based on a thorough study. His view was unclear in a story on page B1 in Thursday's Courant.

But Kenney said that, because most states in the Northeast voted Tuesday to adopt the standards, Connecticut will be pulled along whether or not it wants the standards.

That is because the automakers would not make one car for the rest of the Northeast and another for Connecticut.

But, Keeney said, "I don't think it's appropriate to be dragged along. I think it's appropriate to make the decision on its merits."

"We're not ruling this option out," Keeney said. "It's just a matter of timing."

Connecticut abstained on Tuesday when the governors of nine states and the mayor of Washington voted in Philadelphia to enforce the so-called California-emissions program.

In areas enforcing the rules, vehicles must have extra pollution-control equipment and growing numbers of vehicles have to burn cleaner fuels. In addition, 2 percent of vehicles must operate on battery power by 1999, ultimately increasing to 10 percent in 2003. Many of the requirements would begin with 1997 automobile models, officials said.

Connecticut abstained, along with Vermont and Rhode Island, because state officials wanted more time to study the costs and benefits of the program. They also wanted to consider other potentially more efficient ways of cutting pollution, such as improving the annual testing of auto emissions and changing gasoline formulations.

The tighter limits on pollutants that form ozone, the principal ingredient of the unhealthful smog that drifts over the state in the summer, would add less than $200 to the cost of a passenger car, proponents say. Automakers, however, have said the additional cost could be about $1,000.

The General Assembly passed a law that required the Department of Environmental Protection to study the issue and make a recommendation by Jan. 1, but Keeney had expected it to be completed this fall.

He said he agreed with a commonly held view that, once the big Northeastern states -- New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts -- adopt the program, and others join in, automakers would make one car for the region. Together the Northeast and California account for more than 25 percent of the nation's auto sales.

There are still uncertainties about the costs and benefits of the program, Keeney said.

Keeney said some of the states signed the agreement before completing their own reviews of the matter "for political reasons." He did not name the states pushing the program, but it is widely known that New York has led the effort.

Proponents of the program expect Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont to eventually sign too. Three months ago, Connecticut was among the states that supported the concept of adopting the standards, Keeney said.

The vote Tuesday was one of a series of steps toward adopting the tougher tailpipe standards that began more than two years ago when eight Northeastern states, including Connecticut, announced plans to propose standards as strict as those in California, the only state with stricter limits than those required by the federal government.

Those that signed the agreement Tuesday are New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, New Hampshire and Maine.

They acted under a provision of the new Clean Air Act that allows states to choose between California's tailpipe-standards program and standards written into the new law, which also are tougher than existing rules but not as strict as California's.

In a related move Wednesday, the federal Environmental Protection Agency named areas across the country, including much of Connecticut, where ozone pollution violates federal standards. The routine designations, which began in 1978, mean that cities and states must take steps to reduce air pollution.